Monday, November 10, 2008

An Important Notice, and Possible Bad News

First off, Child's Play is starting again. I know a lot of you already read Big Bear Butt Blogger, and if you don't I'm weirded out (seriously, who hears of me before him?), but he's looking for people to donate prizes for a raffle. If you have something awesome, or something semi-awesome (like a runner up prize) to donate, head over and follow his instructions. Every little bit helps, and it's a great cause.

Now, I'm going to wait while you go check out those links.

Done? Well, that didn't take long. Go back and do it properly!

All right, I suppose that's well enough. We'll get on with what will now be self-indulgent drivel.

I'm considering cancelling my WoW subscription. And, the worst part is, it feels almost like it's not my choice.

My computer has been steadily dying over the past few years. Now it requires a floor fan to be blowing on it constantly in order to keep from becoming piping hot, and that will be a problem come winter. The CD tray is broken; I have to download or just do without. And I can't play WoW at anything higher than 3-5 fps, consistently, anyway. It irritates me, and then I don't enjoy playing. The worst part is, I can't afford a new one. My lifestyle demands a laptop, and they're just too expensive for me.

A minor part of the problem is I'm not too keen on the fact that I can't get a copy of WotLK (and thus a CD key for when I do download it) until a week after its release. This means a week of doing dailies, levelling my lock, and gritting my teeth so I'm not jealous of what everyone else gets to do. I suppose, in a way, it would be a blessing in disguise; my computer obviously could not handle travelling to Northrend with the rush.

Then...there is another problem. The people I once enjoyed playing with have seemed to change almost overnight. Nice, caring, helpful people who I always enjoyed talking to suddenly seem stand-offish, elitist, arrogant, or just...different. WoW is a fun game, but I don't really enjoy it by myself too much. I was looking at server transferring, but I don't know. There doesn't seem to be much scarier than starting completely fresh, even though Sharlet will transfer with me.

I don't know what I'm going to do. I'd like to try WotLK, give it a shot. And there's the fact that, while I'm at school, the only way I can do anything with Sharlet is to play WoW. It's how we spend time together when we can't be together. I've made so many good friends on the server (those who haven't changed), on other servers and in the blogging community, and I don't want the largest connection we have to just...vanish.

I suppose, once I can finally get it, I'll see how WotLK goes. If things get better, then this speculation was for nothing. But if not...I just don't know.

Anyway, that's the long, oh-woe-is-me explanation for the slow posting around here (besides school work and my job). I hope you guys can understand, though I wish it wasn't the case. I enjoy blogging, but when your playtime is an irritating photo slide...it's hard to find something to write about.

10 comments:

It's possible that there's a remedy to your overheating issues. Have you tried having someone with computer expertise take a look at the laptop? I used to have terrible overheating issues on my desktop (the computer would constantly shut itself down as part of a self-preservation mechanism) and cleaning out the fans and heatsink with an air duster was all it took to bring it back to life.

First off, go with Neil's suggestion. My old pre-Mac laptop died as a result of overheating complications. Get it checked out - your college's tech department should be able to diagnose it fo' free.

Secondly, rather than buy a new one, look and see if you can get a slightly used one off of Ebay, or look into the cheaper ones that are currently available.

Then, calmly explain to your parents that if your computer dies, you'll fail out of school, because there'll be no way for you to do your various assignments. After laying in with the initial shock, present the various ways you can solve that problem in an adult manner, with a bit of financial aid.

As far as your realm friends getting all difficult, can't be helped. I think it's a product of not having anything new to do, and hitting the end of the road, even with a new expansion coming. You'll find that pretty much wherever you go, regardless of transferring.

If you know someone who makes their own computers have them look at it. They can at least clean it out good. If you go to someplace like TigerDirect or NewEgg you could get the parts to make a new computer that is WoW useable for $500 or less depending on what you want.

I rarely comment here but I do read your posts! I hope you can work out something to fix your computer. And maybe you can find out what happened to your in-game friends. Maybe you can talk to them if something is wrong ...

I wish you good luck and hope for lots more posts on this blog! It would be missed.

We have a guildie who's a long-distance trucker and when he's in town for more than an hour or two, he comes here. I read those posts to him, attitude and all, and he gets a HUGE kick out of it.

I understand all to well with computer problems, though. This desktop I got a nice deal on through Dell Outlet Center. It's a scratch and dent, so for a really sweet system, I paid a lot less and have no issue with the 4 scratches on the plastic casing in the front.

I do hope it works out for you, and I'd certainly make you welcome on Doomhammer if you do decide to change servers. :)

I don't know what your financial situation is, but I'm sure I can help you find something that fits your needs and you can afford. A quick search revealed several reasonably priced laptops that will get you 15-20 FPS on WoW, so if you need help searching around, just let me know.

As far as your current computer goes, it could be anything from a dead CPU fan, to maybe just needing a good dusting. Obviously this would be the cheaper method, as a good fan would cost maybe $50. The positioning of your case may also have something to do with it.

There are many avenues of possibility. You can get a cheap laptop, a cheap desktop, or replace probably a couple parts on your current desktop (from your post it sounded like you have a desktop.) If you want help exploring these possibilities, let me know. I'll hook you up, and make sure you don't pay anything more than you have to.

Just a note on technology: find a tech nerd at your school, and get him to build you a custom PC. WOW is the least demanding game out there, and I'm sure you could assemble a new monster wow desktop for < $400. Sure its not a latop, but I hope you will have good success. (I've done this myself, albeit with a bigger budget)

If that's too much $, get your tech friend to look at your rig and suggest upgrades. Simple things like a new graphics card (<$80 for wow purposes) or extra memory (dirt cheap) could make an enormous difference.

Sorry about your friends turning sour. Guess they were never real friends.

I'm actually going through something similiar with WoW Friends, though I think with them it's because I've gone horde and my alliance characters get no love now. People do tend to change though, I've experienced that a lot IRL and in-game. Not much you can do about it, I'm afraid.

Hopefully your situation with your friends gets better and you find yourself able to get a better computer, or yours starts working better.

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The Authors

Bellwether is a level 80 Druid on Dark Iron (PvP - US). She has experience in endgame raids, PvP and arena as a Restoration spec'd Healer. She also has knowledge on many other aspects of the druid class, including the other talent trees. Her alts include a Ret Paladin named Bellbell with a bitchin' attitude, and many ickle alties.Contact Information:E-mail: 4haelz AT gmail DOT comAIM: JuiceboxDaniMSN: bellwetherdani@live.comSubscribe to 4 Haelz!Picture provided by the lovely Phaelia of Resto4Life.

Sannhet is a Level 80 Ret Paladin, Frost DK and perhaps soon Warrior with an attitude and an occasional bone to pick. He loves to debate and hopefully he'll write in here to tell you how awesome he is (he's very awesome). He's been referred to on this blog before as "Button."